The present invention relates to an improved apparatus for supporting golf clubs and, in particular, to a club holder or club organizer for a golf carry bag.
It is an important element of the game of golf that the clubs (including the putter) be stably supported and readily accessible to the golfer at all times during play. Numerous apparatus for this purpose have been marketed over the years under such trade marks as xe2x80x9cCADDY RACKxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cCLUB RACKxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cCLUB MATExe2x80x9d. Each of these apparatus have enjoyed widespread use as a general type of club holder, but they are less suitable for the more specialized needs of the professional golfer who requires the orderly, as well as stable, holding of up to 14 clubs in a golf bag for the purpose of easy access and retrieval.
A common problem with some prior art club holding apparatus is that the club shafts are not aligned and spaced apart in parallel fashion, but rather they are criss-crossed and abutting which may, over time and with improper handling, cause structural damage to the clubs. Furthermore, the desired club may be difficult to extract from a bag in which the clubs are criss-crossed and abut each other.
Another problem with many prior art golf club holding apparatus is that they do not allow for easy access to the club head for quick extraction of the desired club from the bag. In such apparatus, the club heads, because of their close and often abutting physical proximity, are prone to suffer collision and subsequent damage during carrying of the bag or in the process of extraction of a club therefrom.
This problem has been overcome in Australian Petty Patent No. 691,464 to the present inventor by the provision of a golf club holding apparatus comprising a cover adapted to fit across the opening of a gold bag. The cover has two or more ridges which are separately inclined from the horizontal so that each aperture thereof is at a different height. In this way, all of the club heads located in the apertures are vertically spaced apart from each other so as to enable the golfer or caddy to readily access and easily extract the appropriate club from the golf bag.
Whilst the apparatus of Australian Petty Patent No. 691,464 has met with success, a need has developed for a golf club organizer with a lower profile than that which results from having two or more separately inclined ridges, such as in the club holder of Australian Petty Patent No. 691,464, but without sacrificing the feature of having the apertures for locating the head of each of the nine iron clubs, which are the most tangle prone of the 14 clubs, positioned on an inclined ridge. The desired low profile of the organizer and inclined positioning of the heads of the iron clubs must be coupled with an efficient and aesthetically pleasing layout of the organizer to suit golfers"" tastes.
Furthermore, the organizer should provide a generally even weight distribution of the clubs when the bag is being carried or supported on a stand.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a club organizer for a golf club carry bag, comprising a cover means adapted to fit across the opening of the golf club carry bag, the cover means having an arcuately shaped ridge member adapted to be supported along a portion of a rim defining the opening of the carry bag, the ridge member having a convex outer side wall and a concave inner side wall defining a concavity, and web means located within the concavity for rigidizing the ridge member by urging the ridge member against the rim, the ridge member being so inclined as to have an upper and a lower end and including a plurality of descending apertures for passing the shaft of each of the iron clubs therethrough and into the carry bag, each of the apertures including a groove formed through the outer side wall for locating the head of respective ones of the iron clubs so that, in accordance with the inclination of the ridge member, each of the apertures is at a different height to each other of the apertures whereby the head of each of the iron clubs are vertically spaced apart from each other and are directed away from the concavity, and the web means defining a plurality of apertures for locating the head of each of the wood clubs.
Preferably, the organizer includes a collar means supported along the rim and upon which is supported the cover means, the collar means including reinforcing members for supporting partitioning means which are located between the shafts of at least some of the iron clubs, the partitioning means extending downwardly from the collar means.